Assessment of exposure to indoor air contaminants from combustion sources: methodology and application

A methodology for assessing indoor air pollutant exposures is presented, with specific application to unvented combustion by-products. This paper describes the method as applied to a study of acute respiratory illness associated with the use of unvented kerosene space heaters in 333 residences in the New Haven, Connecticut, area from September 1982 to April 1983. The protocol serves as a prototype for a nested design of exposure assessment which could be applied to large-scale field studies of indoor air contaminant levels. Questionnaires, secondary records, and several methods of air monitoring offer a reliable method of estimating environmental exposures for assessing associations with health effects at a reasonable cost. Indoor to outdoor ratios of NO2 concentrations were found to be 0.58 +/- 0.31 for residences without known sources of NO2. Levels of NO2 were found to be comparable for homes with a kerosene heater only and those with a gas cooking stove only. Homes with a kerosene heater and a gas stove had average two-week NO2 levels approximately double those with only one source. Presence of tobacco smokers had a small but significant impact on indoor NO2 levels. Two-week average levels of indoor NO2 were found to be excellent predictors of total personal NO2 exposure for a small sample of adults. Residences with kerosene space heaters had SO2 levels corresponding to the number of hours of heater use and the sulfur content of the fuel. Formaldehyde levels were found to be low and not related to unvented combustion sources. NO2, SO2, and CO2 levels measured in some of the residences were found to exceed those levels specified in current national health standards.